


Silk Breeches and Everything After

by SaraJaye



Category: American Girls: Felicity - Various Authors
Genre: Courtship, F/M, Falling In Love, Growing Up, Male-Female Friendship, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2014-09-01
Packaged: 2018-02-15 17:49:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2237985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity can scarcely remember when he wasn't part of her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silk Breeches and Everything After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rina (rinadoll)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinadoll/gifts).



Sometimes she can't believe there was ever a time he hadn't been in her life. He'd come to work at Father's store when she was just barely out of childhood, and he'd been so shy and quiet then. She never would have guessed that he was the most passionate Patriot she would ever meet, that he wanted to be a soldier and fight in the Revolutionary War, that he would never turn a blind eye to someone in need.

The first time they'd spent any time together she'd been more interested in seeing Jiggy Nye's new horse. Horses were all she cared about as a child, something that hadn't changed much even as she'd grown. But even then she supposed she'd been interested in getting to know the shy Ben, talking his ear off about her envy of boys and their breeches and sitting astride horses. Oh, how she'd longed for breeches back then, gowns and stays were so stifling and ladylike baby steps so slow!

She remembers stealing Ben's good breeches, part of her ingenious plan to tame Penny so she might rescue her from Jiggy Nye. When Ben found out what she'd been doing he'd kept her secret, telling Mother he'd loaned his breeches to a friend. Even with Penny constantly on her mind, she felt a slight prickle of happiness at being referred to as his friend.

He'd approved of her name for Penny, too, the first time they'd ever seen her. Mr. Nye, back then so cold and hateful, hadn't bothered to give his work horse a name, but she was the color of a bright, shiny copper penny and had the most inde _pen_ dent spirit. And when her scheme had failed, Ben had offered to buy Penny from Mr. Nye for her.

In the end, she'd been forced to let Penny go free, and when she returned from the hardest thing she'd ever had to to in her ten years, he'd comforted her. She returned his breeches, and he never spoke a word of her clandestine visits to anyone.

They'd shared a secret between them, and from there a friendship began to blossom. He assured her she was doing the right thing when she refused tea at Miss Manderly's lessons, and despite his hatred for the Loyalists he'd escorted her to a dance lesson at the Governer's home. She'd rescued him when he was injured that summer, convinced him not to abandon Father and the store to become a soldier in General Washington's army.

When Grandfather died, Ben had talked to her and comforted her while they worked, side by side in Father's store. It was the first time she'd ever been allowed to help out, and later she would realize it was working beside Ben that had made it so special. They'd worked together for months after that, growing closer, Felicity learning more and more about the formerly shy apprentice.

Years passed, Felicity eventually coming into her own as a lady. Ben never quite realized his dream of being a soldier, as the war came to an end before his eighteenth birthday, but he wasn't bitter or sorry for it. "Deep down, I think I've always known my place is here," he said. "Your family has come to mean as much to me as my own back in Yorktown." He speaks of his family more readily than he used to, Felicity notices, writes them many letters, and sometimes she suspects he may be homesick despite having grown comfortable in Williamsburg.

"Ben," she says one January evening, "would you like to go to Yorktown this spring?" Her mother and father smile, Ben happily says yes, and they spend the week of her fourteenth birthday in Yorktown. The Davidsons are warm and friendly, and more than once Felicity overhears talk of how Ben has "found himself a lovely lady". Ben dances with her on the night of her birthday celebration, and for the first time she's quite happy to _be_ a lady.

"You've grown closer to him, haven't you?" Elizabeth says one afternoon, and Felicity feels her cheeks grow warm. Elizabeth has been another constant in her life, her best and most loyal friend despite their differing loyalties.

"I suppose I have."

"Anabelle was married recently," Elizabeth says, and Felicity sighs with relief. Though she had laughed at snobby "Bananabelle's" silly crush on Ben, she doesn't want to imagine the older girl trying to wrangle a marriage between them. But according to Elizabeth, she fell in love with a visiting Englishman and after a lavish wedding they promptly moved back to his family's summer home in London. "She's happy," Elizabeth says, "Brighton has been very good for her."

"I'm glad." Older and wiser, Felicity has tried to let go of her past grudges towards Anabelle. The older girl caused her and Elizabeth so much grief, but perhaps time and marriage have mellowed her into a better person.

"So I suppose this leaves Ben free to court you," Elizabeth says, a bit teasingly, and Felicity blushes again. Her friend has grown more confident over the past few years, but this is a new side of her.

"If he _wants_ to...and if Mother and Father approve, of course," she says, a bit more quietly than she intended to. "Goodness, what's come over me?"

"It sounds as though you're in love, Lissie."

Perhaps she is, she realizes as a warm feeling settles over her.

That Christmas, she receives an invitation to a Christmas ball held by the Loyalist Templetons. Without her even having to ask, Ben agrees to be her escort. He still hates Loyalists with the exception of the Coles, he says, but her happiness means more to him than his own hatred.

It's a magical night, Ben dances every dance he can with her and she can't help but notice a look of envy on his face anytime she dances with another man. By the end of the night, she wonders if perhaps he's in love with her, too.

He kisses her cheek on the carriage ride home. The next day, he asks Mother and Father for permission to court her.

"I was wondering when you would," Mother says, her eyes twinkling, and Felicity's heart soars. Nan, William and Polly all clap their hands in glee from where they've been eavesdropping.

"Now Ben will be a part of our family!" Nan cries joyfully. She's ten now, easily enthralled by romance and love stories, and she wonders if Nan has been hoping she and Ben would be together all along.

"Brother Ben!" Polly lifts chubby arms for Ben to pick her up, and William hugs Felicity around her waist. He's tall for his age, Felicity notes. He'll be as tall as Father, perhaps more so.

So much has changed in the last four years. Felicity remembers when she hated changes, especially after Grandfather's death, but she knows he's watching them from Heaven. And he is pleased. _Take care of my granddaughter,_ she knows he would say to Ben if he could.

Her fifteenth year is a whirlwind of excitement. She and Ben are officially courting, Penny has given birth to another foal and the store is thriving. Elizabeth meets a young man named Colin, who becomes fast friends with Ben and Felicity. When they begin courting, Elizabeth and Felicity discuss the possibility of a double wedding.

"We'll have a spring wedding, with garlands and flowers all around," Elizabeth says. "Cardinals and bluebirds, too." Even now they still consider themselves the cardinal and the bluebird, just like when they were ten.

"Yes! And Nan will be our maid of honor, William the ring bearer...perhaps Annabelle and Brighton will-" She shakes her head. "I suppose not, with the news that Anabelle is expecting her first child."

"I imagine she'd like to be there," Elizabeth says. "It's amazing, how much closer we've become now that she isn't living here anymore. I think returning to England has helped."

"She never was fully happy in Williamsburg," Felicity agrees.

Their weddings won't be for another year or so, but in the meantime, it's fun to imagine. They'll have to ask if a double wedding is possible but Felicity hopes so, she never did lose her childish imagination and hope for near-impossible things.

Mr. Nye passes away the winter before her sixteenth birthday. It's a peaceful death, old age and time and the cold weather playing their roles; unlike the sharp pain at her grandfather's death, though, Felicity only feels a gentle sorrow. She will miss him, he'd been a close friend to the family since his recovery, but he will no longer have to miss his wife.

They bury him in the town cemetary. At his funeral, nobody speaks of the monster he briefly became, but of the good and gentle person he was and learned to be again. Felicity thinks of Penny, of Ben's breeches and secret visits and blankets and medicine and Patriot and realizes how blessed she was to have Mr. Nye in her life after all.

Winter melts into spring, and on her sixteenth birthday Ben proposes to her. The war still continues to rage on around them, but Mother and Father agree that waiting on it to end will only be pointless.

"If I know you, Lissie, you'll burst from impatience before it does," Father says with a smile. Even now people still call her that old childhood name, everyone but Ben. She can't decide how she feels about it but perhaps it doesn't matter.

"I'm afraid I will, Father. I only wish Elizabeth could have that same choice." Elizabeth and Colin aren't yet engaged, but they will be soon, and Elizabeth won't have her father or Anabelle risking travel during the chaos. Especially her father, who also runs the risk of arrest for his Loyalist ties. "There's nothing to be done," Elizabeth says, but she's disappointed and misses her family dearly, and Felicity aches for her.

"Perhaps we'll wait till the year's end," Ben suggests, "and if peace isn't on the horizon by then, we'll marry regardless. What do you think, Felicity?" Winter still feels too long to wait, but she knows planning a wedding does take time, and perhaps things will be more peaceful by then.

"That sounds reasonable," she says, wondering when she became so old.

The war still rages on come December, so Felicity and Ben are wed the fifteenth. It hasn't started to snow yet but it's certainly cold enough to, and Mother bundles them all in their warm winter garments over their fancy clothes. Felicity can barely move as it is, her new dress is fancier than anything she's ever owned and for the first time in seven years she wishes ladies didn't have to wear such fussy things.

But the dress is beautiful, she must admit, and she's proud to wear it.

Elizabeth is her maid of honor; after concluding that a double wedding wasn't possible they agreed to fill this position for one another. Ben's family planned their travel long enough in advance that any possible snow wouldn't be a problem for them.

It's a simple affair but the church is on the full side nonetheless, and the ceremony goes off without a hitch. Felicity and Ben share their first kiss as man and wife amidst the approving crowds.

To everyone's surprise Nan catches the bouquet, and turns bright red when the other ladies tease her. The feast is simple yet elegant, many of Felicity and Ben's favorites and tables full of people talking and laughing. Felicity can't help but notice Colin and Elizabeth acting a bit like a married couple already, despite Elizabeth's blushes.

"We have a nephew about Nan's age," Ben's mother says at length. Nan turns bright red again and Ben gives his mother a pleading look.

"She's still only eleven years old! Becoming a lady, yes, but still much too young!" Felicity agrees, she may have come to terms with growing older but her siblings are a different story.

Two years later, the war has finally ended. Colin and Elizabeth were married that spring, with her whole family in attendance and a very pregnant Felicity the maid of honor. Her and Ben's daughter, Juliet, was born two months later.

"She'll be just like you," Ben says as he watches the baby's attempts at grabbing her mother's horse brushes. Penny is growing too old for long rides, but remains a beloved part of the family as do her five children. Juliet is too young to go anywhere near the stables, but Felicity suspects she'll be teaching her to ride before she's even six years old.

"Hopefully more patient," she says with a chuckle, pulling the brushes out of the little girl's reach. Father has offered to let her and Ben take over the general store within the next few years, and as much as Felicity loves tending to their home, horses and child she wants to say yes. She may be a lady now, but Ben tells her she hasn't _truly_ changed so much.

But he wouldn't want her to, anyway, he says. Because it was her spirit he fell in love with. And Felicity vows never to lose it, no matter how old and sensible she becomes.

**Author's Note:**

> While this story follows the books' canon, I did sneak in a movie reference; the Templetons' ball replaced the dance lesson in the movie, so I added it as a post-canon event. I filched the name Colin from Anaballe's song in "Felicity's Surprise" for Elizabeth's love interest. :) And I couldn't help adding the bit about Mr. Nye, since Penny was originally _his_ horse and Penny was essentially how Felicity and Ben became friends.


End file.
